Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field eBook

On arriving at Memphis, I found General Sherman’s
expedition was ready to move toward Vicksburg.
A few of the soldiers who escaped from the raid on
Holly Springs had reached Memphis with intelligence
of that disaster. The news caused much excitement,
as the strength of the Rebels was greatly exaggerated.
A few of these soldiers thought Van Dorn’s entire
division of fifteen or twenty thousand men had been
mounted and was present at the raid. There were
rumors of a contemplated attack upon Memphis, after
General Sherman’s departure.

Unmilitary men thought the event might delay the movement
upon Vicksburg, but it did not have that effect.
General Sherman said he had no official knowledge
that Holly Springs had been captured, and could do
no less than carry out his orders. The expedition
sailed, its various divisions making a rendezvous
at Friar’s Point, twelve miles below Helena,
on the night of the 22d of December. From this
place to the mouth of the Yazoo, we moved leisurely
down the Mississippi, halting a day near Milliken’s
Bend, almost in sight of Vicksburg. We passed
a portion of Christmas-Day near the mouth of the Yazoo.

On the morning of the 26th of December, the fleet
of sixty transports, convoyed by several gun-boats,
commenced the ascent of the Yazoo. This stream
debouches into the Mississippi, fifteen miles above
Vicksburg, by the course of the current, though the
distance in an airline is not more than six miles.
Ten or twelve miles above its mouth, the Yazoo sweeps
the base of the range of hills on which Vicksburg stands,
at a point nearly behind the city. It was therefore
considered a feasible route to the rear of Vicksburg.

In a letter which I wrote on that occasion, I gave
the following description of the country adjoining
the river, and the incidents of a night bivouac before
the battle:—­“The bottom-land of the
Yazoo is covered with a heavy growth of tall cypress-trees,
whose limbs are everywhere interlaced. In many
places the forest has a dense undergrowth, and in
others it is quite clear, and affords easy passage
to mounted men. These huge trees are heavily draped
in the ’hanging moss,’ so common in the
Southern States, which gives them a most gloomy appearance.
The moss, everywhere pendent from the limbs of the
trees, covers them like a shroud, and in some localities
shuts out the sunlight. In these forests there
are numerous bayous that form a net-work converting
the land into a series of islands. When separated
from your companions, you can easily imagine yourself
in a wilderness. In the wild woods of the Oregon
there is no greater solitude.”

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“On the afternoon of the 27th, I started from
the transports, and accompanied our left wing, which
was advancing on the east side of Chickasaw Bayou.
The road lay along the crest of the levee which had
been thrown up on the bank of the bayou, to protect
the fields on that side against inundation. This
road was only wide enough for the passage of a single
wagon. Our progress was very slow, on account
of the necessity for removing heavy logs across the
levee. When night overtook us, we made our bivouac
in the forest, about three miles from the river.